Bay Bridge Series: Tim Lincecum Avoids Major Injury; Oakland Athletics Beat San Francisco Giants Again

The San Francisco Giants may have dodged a bullet Friday night even as starter Tim Lincecum couldn’t.

Lincecum was hit on the left leg by a comebacker off the bat of Daric Barton on the final play of the fourth inning, but was diagnosed with just a contusion as the Giants lost to the Oakland Athletics 4-1 in the second game of the Bay Bridge Series at AT&T Park.

The Giants announced Lincecum had a left knee contusion and that X-rays were negative.

"“Not too worried,” Lincecum told MLB.com. “I knew it hit me in a relatively good spot. It didn’t hit me in the front of the kneecap.”"

The A’s, meanwhile, silenced the Giants’ bats for the second straight night, with Jesse Chavez (5-1) carrying a no-hitter into the sixth until it was broken up when Angel Pagan doubled with one out in the sixth.

Chavez was pulled at that point, having worked 5.1 innings and issuing one walk with five strikeouts in a thrifty 66-pitch effort. He threw 47 of those pitches for strikes.

Lincecum, meanwhile, allowed a run on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts. The only run he gave up was John Jaso’s second homer of the spring in the third inning.

Oakland (15-13) piled on three runs in the sixth. Dan Runzler got the first two outs before running into trouble, walking Jaso and allowing a double to Nick Punto before walking Barton to load the bases.

Sam Fuld turned on a fastball, yanking it to right field for a triple that cleared the bases.

The Giants (17-12) got their first run of the series off A’s closer Jim Johnson in the ninth. Pablo Sandoval reached on a one-out single and was wiped out on a force play. Juan Perez took second on defensive indifference and then scored when  Joaquin Arias lined a soft single to center.

Fernando Abad finished the sixth for Oakland, striking out one of the two batters he faced. Sean Doolittle allowed a hit in the seventh and Luke Gregerson worked a perfect eighth. Johnson gave up three hits and struck out one in the ninth.

Yusmiero Petit walked one and struck out one in his lone inning of work. Runzler was charged with three runs on two hits and two walks. Jean Machi allowed a hit in 1.1 innings, Santiago Casilla was touched for two hits in a scoreless inning, Javier Lopez retired the only batter he faced in the ninth and Sergio Romo struck out one of the two batters he faced.

Josh Reddick and Jaso had two hits each as Oakland collected eight on the night, with one of Reddick’s safeties a double off Machi.

The Giants mustered just five hits and have only nine in the first two games of the series.

The series is scheduled to shift to O.co Coliseum Saturday afternoon, but the Giants already made a change to their pitching plans, sending scheduled starter Ryan Vogelsong back to Arizona because of the threat of rain in the East Bay on Saturday. Edwin Escobar is now scheduled to start the 1:05 p.m. game against Dan Straily for the A’s.